Mediation

Mediation is the attempt to help those in a disagreement hear one another, to minimise the harm that can come from disagreement (eg hostility or ‘demonising’ of the other parties) to maximize any area of agreement, and to find a way of preventing the areas if disagreement from interfering with the process of seeking a compromise or mutually agreed outcome

Mediation may be thought of as “assisted negotiation.”
Negotiation may be thought of as “communications for agreement.”

Hence, mediation is “assisted communications for agreement.”
Central to mediation is the concept of “informed consent.” So long as participants understand the nature of a contemplated mediation process and effectively consent to participate in the described process, virtually any mediation process is possible and appropriate.